Climate change mitigation is sometimes used as a synonym of climate change adaptation. The two however, differ. The United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines mitigation as actions that reduce greenhouse gases (GHS) and/or enhance carbon sinks and reservoirs, whereas climate change adaptation consists adjustments in ecological, social and economic systems and moderating possible problems arising from the climate change or alternatively even efforts to benefit from it.
Mitigation actions can include e.g. economic instruments such as emission trading systems or on more practical level improving the use of land in ways that prevent possible methane emissions. Also reforestation is used to enhance the carbon sequestration in the biomass of trees and forestland. Biofuel production has gained popularity as an alternative for fossil fuels. Biofuels, at best, provide sustainable circulation of carbon because the crops or other biological material (algae, trees etc.) bind and release only carbon readily in circulation whereas fossil fuels release new carbon from carbon stocks not in circulation, thus adding to the overall carbon levels of the atmosphere. Regulatory instruments on nations level are a form of mitigation as well; e.g. U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard's (RFS2) objective is to reduce GHG's.[1]
Renewable energy rsources such as solar, wind and waterpower are considered as climate change mitigation action as well, as the use will reduce the use of fossil based fuels.
IPCC working group III: climate change mitigation
"You can think of the atmosphere as a common resource, it's not owned by anybody, people around the world share it. They use it for various purposes and - I'm sorry to say - that one is they use it for dumping their waste greenhouse gases. It costs each individual nothing to dump and it costs nations very little to dump their own gases into the atmosphere but the harm done by that is paid by people all over the world. That means the atmosphere gets overused. And that is the tragedy of the commons."
The directly used measures in mitigation can, however, have positive or negative effects in relation to food. Under Kyoto Protocol, biofuels are seen as carbon-neutral because of their aforementioned sustainable carbon cycle. However spillover effects and net international consequences of e.g. RFS2 have been argued: U.S is a major crop producer globally and the growth of the agriculture section is mainly hindered by the lack of appropriate land. Dedicating these lands to biofuel production has the risk of growing need of imports for food and furthermore increase the global use of fertilizers.[2]
Countries committed to Kyoto protocol can participate to UNFCCC's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in order to mitigate their emissions outside the borders of the country itself while providing development opportunities to degraded areas or lands.[3] There has been incidents where people have been evicted from the land they live in, cultivate and rely on food production by companies that provide the carbon credits with their actions (e.g. reforestation) to nations.[4][5][6]
On the other hand, climate change mitigation actions such as conserving the soil in ways that improves its' carbon balance e.g. reduced soil cover, tillage and mulching affects positively to long term yield development, reduces weeds and improves rooting conditions.[7]
Link to SDG's
Climate change mitigation can be seen as part of UN sustainable development goals, and most explicitly it is related to goal number thirteen; climate action. Climate action calls for mitigating the climate change and greenhouse gases.
Also target seven, affordable and clean energy, has a relation to climate change mitigation; 60 % of greenhouse gases globally are from energy use and growing the amount of renewable energy resources is important.
Furthermore, SDG target 15, life on land can be promoted with mitigation actions, especially if they are combined in a way that decreases soil degradation and thus improves the carbon balance and stock of the soil. According to UN, "2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture, but 52 per cent of the land used for agriculture is moderately or severely affected by soil degradation."[8]
Finally, mitigation is related to zero hunger, the second SDG goal. Properly executed CDM projects can provide electricity and thus have an effect on energy poverty, which UN states to be one dominant reason for hunger.[9] However, the possible negative effects of mitigation, such as potential land grabs under CDM or the like and biofuels gaining land from food production have to be kept in mind.
Corporate praxis
Biochar is a substance that is left when biomass is burned in certain ways and it can be used in similar manner as leafs or other substances to
improve soil functions. It is porous and thus creates space in the soil, this way retaining nutrients and water for plant use. As a consequence, not as much of fertilizers are needed in the production and levels of methane, N2O and carbon dioxide decomposing from the fertilizers are lower. Also, the biomass used for biochar is not releasing GHG's, rather it is binding them. The Biochar Company (TBC) is a product development, marketing and sales company built around the product. TBC products are used in agriculture and for example in green roofs because of the light weight of the product.[10][11]
Effectivenes of biochar in its ability to enhance climate change mitigation has, however, been criticized; a recent review came to the conclusion that biochar holds the potential but results are very context dependent. The type of soil, biochar, plant produced etc. have an effect on the end result.[12]
Biochar do hold the potential to other benefits in agriculture as well, because it has the ability to withhold metals and act as an amendment to polluted soils.[13][14]
Critique
UNFCCC parties can mitigate their carbon footprint by development projects that at the same time reduce carbon from the atmosphere and help the lives of local communities in underdeveloped countries. This Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) can for example include forestry projects where a forestry company sells carbon credits to a member of the party from the forests they plant and grow. At the same time, work and improvements of sanitation etc. is provided to the local community, especially to women and children.[15]
However, it has came about that in some areas people are even evicted from their living areas and lands for these projects. Companies have been claimed to use chemicals that harm the local and their livestock. Even violence has been used to keep the people out from their homes.[16] This so called carbon violence has gained more and more attention lately.[17][18]
Examples from Finland
Neste, Finnish oil refining and marketing company was acknowledged as world leader for corporate action on climate change by the carbon disclosure project on 2016, being one of the five energy companies accepted and the only one in all sectors in the Nordic. Mainly on their operations on areas such as renewable fuels Neste achieved a carbon reduction of 6.4 millions tons on 2016.[19]
^ Mosnier, A., Havlik, P., Valin, H., Baker, J. S., Murray, B. C., Feng, S., ... & Schneider, U. A. (2012). The Net Global Effects of Alternative US Biofuels Mandates: Fossil Fuel Displacement, Indirect Land Use Change, and the Role of Agricultural Productivity Growth. Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. Report no. NI, 12, 01.
^ Hajdu, F., Penje, O. & Fischer, K. (2016). Questioning the use of ‘degradation’ in climate mitigation: A case study of a forest carbon CDM project in Uganda. Published in Land Use Policy 59 p. 412-422
^ Lyons, K., & Westoby, P. (2014). Carbon colonialism and the new land grab: Plantation forestry in Uganda and its livelihood impacts. Journal of Rural Studies, 36, 13-21.
^ Laghari, M., Naidu, R., Xiao, B., Hu, Z., Mirjat, M. S., Hu, M., ... & Abudi, Z. N. (2016). Recent developments in biochar as an effective tool for agricultural soil management: a review. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 96(15), 4840-4849.
^ Kong, L. L., Liu, W. T., & Zhou, Q. X. (2014). Biochar: an effective amendment for remediating contaminated soil. In Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology Volume 228 (pp. 83-99). Springer International Publishing.
^ Paz-Ferreiro, J., Lu, H., Fu, S., Méndez, A., & Gascó, G. (2014). Use of phytoremediation and biochar to remediate heavy metal polluted soils: a review. Solid Earth, 5(1), 65.
Definition
Climate change mitigation is sometimes used as a synonym of climate change adaptation. The two however, differ. The United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines mitigation as actions that reduce greenhouse gases (GHS) and/or enhance carbon sinks and reservoirs, whereas climate change adaptation consists adjustments in ecological, social and economic systems and moderating possible problems arising from the climate change or alternatively even efforts to benefit from it.
Mitigation actions can include e.g. economic instruments such as emission trading systems or on more practical level improving the use of land in ways that prevent possible methane emissions. Also reforestation is used to enhance the carbon sequestration in the biomass of trees and forestland. Biofuel production has gained popularity as an alternative for fossil fuels. Biofuels, at best, provide sustainable circulation of carbon because the crops or other biological material (algae, trees etc.) bind and release only carbon readily in circulation whereas fossil fuels release new carbon from carbon stocks not in circulation, thus adding to the overall carbon levels of the atmosphere. Regulatory instruments on nations level are a form of mitigation as well; e.g. U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard's (RFS2) objective is to reduce GHG's.[1]
Renewable energy rsources such as solar, wind and waterpower are considered as climate change mitigation action as well, as the use will reduce the use of fossil based fuels.
IPCC working group III: climate change mitigation
"You can think of the atmosphere as a common resource, it's not owned by anybody, people around the world share it. They use it for various purposes and - I'm sorry to say - that one is they use it for dumping their waste greenhouse gases. It costs each individual nothing to dump and it costs nations very little to dump their own gases into the atmosphere but the harm done by that is paid by people all over the world. That means the atmosphere gets overused. And that is the tragedy of the commons."
Relation to food
Mitigating climate change reduces the risks of climate change and risks related in e.g. food security, food system resilience and furthermore reduces the need for climate change adaptation measures.
The directly used measures in mitigation can, however, have positive or negative effects in relation to food. Under Kyoto Protocol, biofuels are seen as carbon-neutral because of their aforementioned sustainable carbon cycle. However spillover effects and net international consequences of e.g. RFS2 have been argued: U.S is a major crop producer globally and the growth of the agriculture section is mainly hindered by the lack of appropriate land. Dedicating these lands to biofuel production has the risk of growing need of imports for food and furthermore increase the global use of fertilizers.[2]
Countries committed to Kyoto protocol can participate to UNFCCC's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in order to mitigate their emissions outside the borders of the country itself while providing development opportunities to degraded areas or lands.[3] There has been incidents where people have been evicted from the land they live in, cultivate and rely on food production by companies that provide the carbon credits with their actions (e.g. reforestation) to nations.[4] [5] [6]
On the other hand, climate change mitigation actions such as conserving the soil in ways that improves its' carbon balance e.g. reduced soil cover, tillage and mulching affects positively to long term yield development, reduces weeds and improves rooting conditions.[7]
Link to SDG's
Climate change mitigation can be seen as part of UN sustainable development goals, and most explicitly it is related to goal number thirteen; climate action. Climate action calls for mitigating the climate change and greenhouse gases.
Also target seven, affordable and clean energy, has a relation to climate change mitigation; 60 % of greenhouse gases globally are from energy use and growing the amount of renewable energy resources is important.
Furthermore, SDG target 15, life on land can be promoted with mitigation actions, especially if they are combined in a way that decreases soil degradation and thus improves the carbon balance and stock of the soil. According to UN, "2.6 billion people depend directly on agriculture, but 52 per cent of the land used for agriculture is moderately or severely affected by soil degradation."[8]
Finally, mitigation is related to zero hunger, the second SDG goal. Properly executed CDM projects can provide electricity and thus have an effect on energy poverty, which UN states to be one dominant reason for hunger.[9] However, the possible negative effects of mitigation, such as potential land grabs under CDM or the like and biofuels gaining land from food production have to be kept in mind.
Corporate praxis
Biochar is a substance that is left when biomass is burned in certain ways and it can be used in similar manner as leafs or other substances to
improve soil functions. It is porous and thus creates space in the soil, this way retaining nutrients and water for plant use. As a consequence, not as much of fertilizers are needed in the production and levels of methane, N2O and carbon dioxide decomposing from the fertilizers are lower. Also, the biomass used for biochar is not releasing GHG's, rather it is binding them. The Biochar Company (TBC) is a product development, marketing and sales company built around the product. TBC products are used in agriculture and for example in green roofs because of the light weight of the product.[10] [11]
Effectivenes of biochar in its ability to enhance climate change mitigation has, however, been criticized; a recent review came to the conclusion that biochar holds the potential but results are very context dependent. The type of soil, biochar, plant produced etc. have an effect on the end result.[12]
Biochar do hold the potential to other benefits in agriculture as well, because it has the ability to withhold metals and act as an amendment to polluted soils.[13] [14]
Critique
UNFCCC parties can mitigate their carbon footprint by development projects that at the same time reduce carbon from the atmosphere and help the lives of local communities in underdeveloped countries. This Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) can for example include forestry projects where a forestry company sells carbon credits to a member of the party from the forests they plant and grow. At the same time, work and improvements of sanitation etc. is provided to the local community, especially to women and children.[15]
However, it has came about that in some areas people are even evicted from their living areas and lands for these projects. Companies have been claimed to use chemicals that harm the local and their livestock. Even violence has been used to keep the people out from their homes.[16] This so called carbon violence has gained more and more attention lately.[17] [18]
Examples from Finland
Neste, Finnish oil refining and marketing company was acknowledged as world leader for corporate action on climate change by the carbon disclosure project on 2016, being one of the five energy companies accepted and the only one in all sectors in the Nordic. Mainly on their operations on areas such as renewable fuels Neste achieved a carbon reduction of 6.4 millions tons on 2016.[19]
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